Michigan Salvage
The Fiction of Bonnie Jo Campbell
Andy Oler editor Lisa DuRose editor Ross Tangedal editor
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Michigan State University Press
Published:1st May '23
Should be back in stock very soon
Michigan Salvage is the first scholarly collection on celebrated writer Bonnie Jo Campbell, the author of two novels and three short story collections, including National Book Award finalist American Salvage (2009). Her writing captures a diverse and bustling rural America, brimming with complex characters who struggle with addiction, poverty, and land degradation—issues that have become, undeniably, part of the southwestern Michigan landscape that she calls home. The essays in this volume demonstrate many rich ways to approach Campbell’s writing, from historical and cultural overviews to essays examining the class and gender implications of her stories and novels, to teaching essays highlighting how to use her work in the classroom and beyond. Along with each essay, Michigan Salvage also features lesson plans and writing prompts meant to spark discussion and encourage further investigation into these stories and novels. This essential and teachable collection makes plain Campbell’s contributions to contemporary American literature.
“In a time when teaching our literary truth tellers is critical, Campbell’s deeply rewarding novels and stories offer insights into the nature of human beings under unanticipated, often unjust stresses. In this collection of essays about Campbell’s work, critics, teachers, writers, students and thinkers will discover abundant analysis, relevant inquiry, inspiring prompts, and a rich array of pedagogical approaches. I’ve long wanted to bring the power of the Great Lakes Midwest voice to the forefront of the new cannons in our classrooms and consciousness. This lively focus on Campbell’s work compels us toward that. I couldn’t be more grateful for this incredible resource.”
--Anne-Marie Oomen, author of A Collection of Michigan Nonfiction, and The Lake Michigan Mermaid: a Tale in Poems, both Michigan Notable Books, 2019 and As Long as I Know You: The Mom Book, winner of AWP's Sue William Silverman Award for Creative Nonfiction.
Bonnie Jo Campbell’s fiction is extraordinary. The contributors to this first book about her work offer wide-ranging insights into her vision of “the tangled uncertainty of promise and pain in ordinary lives.” They enlarge our understanding of Campbell’s stories and novels in many contexts, and offer inspiring examples of how to teach them in many settings. Michigan Salvage lives up to its topic—and that is high praise.
—June Howard, professor emerita at the University of Michigan, and the author of The Center of the World: Regional Writing and the Puzzles of Place-Time
ISBN: 9781611864526
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
240 pages